Memoirs of love, loss and life

Madeline Sharples is today's guest on Friday Five… Three... One. She's here to talk about her memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, was released by Lucky Press last year. 

FIVE FUN FACTS:

• Favorite beverage: Red zinfandel wine from Amador County, CA
• One habit you just can’t break: Eating peanut butter for breakfast
• Do you sing in the shower: No
• Do you dream in color: Yes
• TV shows on DVR? The Good Wife, Project Runway, Mad Men, 60 Minutes, Downton Abbey, Harry’s Law

THREE QUESTIONS

• What is your reoccurring dream? None recur, but they are all weird
• Shoes or purses? Both although I call myself the bag lady. My closet shelves are lined with them.
• Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Going to the movies, working out, reading a book, writing a poem, napping

ONE SENTENCE

Using these four words, write a sentence: Madam. Whore. Baby. Canada.

Canada’s most renown Madam refuses to rehire her most highly paid and sought after whore after she had that damn baby because her once gorgeous and round breasts now hang down past her navel. 

YOUR TURN:


Leaving the Hall Light On is about living after loss. It's about finding peace and balance and various ways the author, Madeline Sharples, brought herself together after feeling so helpless and out of control during her son Paul's seven-year struggle with bipolar disorder and after his suicide in September 1999.
 Sharples explains: "I write about the steps I took in living with the loss of my son, including making use of diversions to help ease my grief.”


Leaving the Hall Light On is also about the milestones she met toward living a full life without him: packing and giving away his clothes, demolishing and redoing the scene of his death, cataloging and packing away all his records and books, copying all of his original music compositions onto CDs, digitizing all of the family photos, and gutting his room and turning it into her office and sanctuary with a bay window that looks out toward a lush garden and a bubbling water fountain.



My memoir has been said to be a tribute to life. One reader said: "After reading this honest memoir the reader will be impressed by the strength and life-affirming perspective of a mother who found her way to healing and peace."

Find me:

• http://madeline40.blogspot.com/
• @madeline40
• http://www.MadelineSharples.com
• http://www.redroom.com/member/madeline40
• http://www.naturallysavvy.com/savvy-over-60
• http://www.psychalive.org/index.php?s=madeline+sharples&image.x=13&image.y=5
• http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/madeline-sharples.html
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Madeline-Sharples/145268628820134?ref=mf

Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

Today's guest hopped The Pond to be here

Paula Martin had some early publishing success with short stories and four contemporary romance novels in the 60’s and 70’s, but then had a break from writing while she brought up a young family and also pursued her career as a history teacher for 25 years. 

Now's she's back to writing fiction. Her latest book from Whiskey Creek Press, Fragrance of Violets, is set in the Lake District--one of my favorite places on earth.

Paula, take it away...

FIVE FUN FACTS:

• Favorite beverage:  Diet Coke (or Pepsi) or even (cheap!) supermarket diet cola.
• One habit you just can’t break: Only one? Okay, why do I always check the back door is locked before I go out (through the front door) when I KNOW it is?
• Do you sing in the shower: No way, I can’t sing to save my life.
• Do you dream in color: Yes, vividly at times. Doesn’t everyone?
• TV shows on DVR: Very rarely, unless there’s something special I want to see. The last one I recorded was the Christmas special of Downton Abbey, as I was away over Christmas.

THREE QUESTIONS

• What is your reoccurring dream? I’m late, usually for getting to the airport or train station. I have about 5 minutes to get there, and am running round the house trying to pack my bags, but I can’t find what I need. When I was producing musical theatre shows, this dream converted itself into a similar panic-type situation with me running around backstage trying to find everyone’s costumes or, in some cases, one of the actors who should have been onstage. I wake up exhausted after these dreams!
• Shoes or purses? Neither. I have one all-purpose purse (or handbag as we call them in the UK) and use it everywhere. I hate having to get a new bag, because I’ve become so used to where everything is in my old bag. I feel the same about shoes.
• Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Since we have so many of them in the UK, they tend to be like any other day!

ONE SENTENCE

Using these four words, write a sentence: Point.Hostage. Key West. Bonus.

Easy-peasy, all Mikey had to do was point the gun at the rich guy’s kid, take him as a hostage to Key West and pick up the million dollar bonus Fat Sam had promised him once he delivered the kid.

YOUR TURN

My recent release is ‘Fragrance of Violets’, set mainly in England’s beautiful Lake District. The title comes from a quote by Mark Twain: Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it, and it’s a story of two people who need to forgive each other and also deal with other issues in their lives.

Abbey Seton distrusts men, especially Jack Tremayne who destroyed their friendship when they were teenagers. Ten years later, they meet again. Can they put the past behind them?

Abbey has to forgive not only Jack, but also her father who deserted his family when she was young. Jack holds himself responsible for his fiancée’s death. He’s also hiding another secret which threatens the fragile resumption of his relationship with Abbey.

Will Abbey ever forgive him when she finds out the truth?

My previous novel was ‘His Leading Lady’, set in London’s theatre world:

Jess Harper decides to pose as her twin sister, Lora, who has disappeared. Attraction sparks between her and theatre director Kyle Drummond, but is he treating her as a substitute for Lora – in real life as well as in the show?

Find me: 

• http://paulamartinromances.webs.com/
• http://paulamartinpotpourri.blogspot.com/
• http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.com/
• 
  

Buy links:

• 'His Leading Lady' and 'Fragrance of Violets' available from www.whiskeycreekpress.com and also from Amazon, Fictionwise and Bookstrand.

Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.